Now more than ever, individuals are realizing how important product planning is. Production planning has proven itself critical for effectively running any manufacturing plant. With the absence of planned production, you aren’t able to forecast what, when, and how you will produce anything. A long-term view of the production process is essential for a fully optimized, streamlined, and powerful workflow.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has provided a revolutionary way to understand your manufacturing plant – allowing for access to instant data that previously had never been accessible. The advantages of planned production are seemingly endless, but to narrow it down, some of these include on-time delivery, reducing inventory expenses, and drastic decreases in production costs. Now let’s get into how:
On-time delivery
By having a clear view of your resources, available machines, and manpower, you can accurately decipher the amount of time it’ll take to turn your raw materials into a final product. In other words, this allows you to always ensure timely product delivery. Failing to meet your planned production demands and deadlines often results in wasted inventory, costly damage to your business’ reputation, and decrease in customer loyalty.
Clear raw material procurement
Procuring the wrong amounts of raw materials before you start your planned production process can be a costly mistake – whether you procure too much or too little. When you procure too much, not only will you have to pay for unnecessary resources, but now you must also invest in storage, transportation, and sometimes even disposal of the resource. When you procure too little, it becomes nearly impossible to reach your production targets, which can further result in wasted time and expenditure. With a thorough production plan, you will always procure the exact right amount of raw material, avoiding costly miscalculations, wasted product, and other errors.
Reduce your inventory expenditure
By possessing an in-depth understanding of your inventory requirements, you won’t need to invest in excess materials or stock. Excess inventory leads to other forms of waste, considering storage costs, energy, electricity, and transportation for unneeded materials.
Boost efficiency & reduce production costs
A thorough, reliable production plan will straighten out any expensive inefficiencies you currently have in your workplace. Once you have accurately planned your requirements for production, you won’t waste expenditure on excess materials, staff, or machine operation time. Inaccurate planned production can result in too many or too few staff being shifted to work at the same time, further wasting resources or causing a strain on employees.
IIoT in Planned Production
The Industrial Internet of Things is the connection of everyday objects to the internet, allowing them to send and receive data. Platforms such as Thingworx can make production planning increasingly efficient, as it provides real-time information on the location/operation of all elements in your manufacturing line. Here are some ways that the IoT can aid your production planning:
Real-time stock levels
Both production managers and floor workers can know the precise amount of inventory a manufacturing plant has at any time by attaching sensors to inventory and raw material warehouses. This can provide additional information and is extremely efficient due to the fact it eliminates the need for frequent, time-consuming stock checks.
Know exactly how your machinery is operating
You can only plan production when you know how your machinery is performing. By attaching sensors to your machinery, you can predict exactly how long each process will take.
Reduce downtime
If there is any chance for unexpected downtime, accurate production planning can become increasingly difficult. However, if you attach your machinery to the cloud, you can reduce any chance of downtime – as you’ll be able to maintain your machinery much more efficiently. The Internet of Things also allows you to conduct predictive maintenance on machinery, which makes the chance downtime even less likely.
Inform processes
You can only plan production when you know how your machinery is performing. By attaching sensors to your machinery, you can predict exactly how long each process will take. Having a connected manufacturing line can also grant the access to large quantities of data that can help when planing the future production routing process.
Conclusion
In summary, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) can give you crucial, real-time data on your machinery. This can be utilized by project managers, engineers, and the whole organization in order to create the best machinery and the most efficient workflows possible. Gain the potential to transform your manufacturing capabilities and revolutionize your business.